Thinking back to, oh, May, June, when we first got an inkling of the JBT and it was going to be songs covering the rock and roll era since 1950 and some in the Claynation sucked in their breath and let out a loud groan and the words "cheese" and "fest". There was gnashing of teeth and laments about how the critics were going to eat him up; AI was still alive and well and why not just call it the "Mama's Boy" tour since he mentioned his mom liked those songs.

Flash forward to July 28, 2005, Tom's River and that first cellcert; "OMG, Clay is wearing a leather jacket", "Clay is singing on the piano", "OMG, Clay is playing the piano"....and so it went all night as each announcement was made and end then, in the wee hours of the morning, the clack arrived and it was unanimous, this was not the Clay from AI, not even the Clay from NAT, this was a whole new Clay; a take-charge, this is my show, raspberry blowing to critics, I'll sing what I want to sing, leather-wearing, throwing off the choir boy image, blowing all stereotypes and comparisons, alpha-male to the nth degree Clay. And we loved him and applauded him and thudded and downloaded clack like there was nobody's business.

This same Clay is still here, doing his thing, thumbing his nose at the nay-sayers and critics; when they say it can't be done; he says "watch me".

He teases us; throws a morsel out there now and again; giving us just enough to get us thinking, and all the while you know his sitting back with a twinkle in his eye,and a smile on his face, because he is sure in his talent, his beliefs, his career decisions...he trusts his instincts enough to live outside the box....we should too!

Kim